Senior Tyler Safratowich was the Gophers’ highest finisher at the Big Ten Championships, placing 3rd at 157 pounds to lead Minnesota
to a fifth place finish. The Gophers pieced together a 5-3 record in
the placing round Sunday afternoon to edge up the team standings after
ending Saturday in seventh position. Iowa easily won the team title
with 141.0 point and Illinois finished second (113.5 pts). Michigan
(3rd, 92.5 pts) and Wisconsin (4th, 88.0 pts) each finished just in
fron of the Gophers.
“We had some good matches today. Saf stepped it up; I think he wrestled
well the whole weekend,” Minnesota head coach J Robinson said. “One
thing I think we were missing a little this weekend was consistency. We
would get hot and get cold, and we’re going to have to work on that
when we go to the national tournament. “
Five Gophers earned automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament via the brand
new NCAA qualifying standards. Zach Sanders (5th, 125 lbs), Jayson Ness
(4th, 133 pounds), Mike Thorn (5th, 141 pounds), Safratowich and Ben
Berhow (4th, Hwt) each qualified. The new qualifying standards supply
28 of the 33 wrestlers which will compete in each weight class at the
national tournament. The five remaining at-large bids will be announced
on March 11.
Among the Gophers who will be in the discussion for at-large bids
include Matt Everson (174 pounds), Sonny Yohn (184 pounds) and Gordon
Bierschenk (197 pounds).
Ness’ third pin of the tournament highlighted Minnesota’s 3-3 mark in
the consolation semifinals that began the action Sunday at the Bryce
Jordan Center. Safratowich and Berhow also won their respective
consolation semifinal bouts to earn a spot in the third place
matches.
Sanders, Thorn and Gordon Bierschenk (197 pounds) each lost hotly
contested matches to Iowa wrestlers in the early afternoon
wrestlebacks. Sanders dropped a 5-4 decision to second-seeded Charlie
Falck, Thorn lost a narrow 2-1 decision to Alex Tsirtsis and Bierschenk
suffered a 6-3 loss in the closing seconds of his match with Chad
Beatty.
Everson and Yohn helped set the tone for the placing rounds with wins
in their seventh place matches at 174 pounds and 184 pounds,
respectively. Yohn pinned Wisconsin’s Eric Bugenhagen in his only match
of the day and Everson bested eighth-seeded Ian Hinton of Michigan
State in a close 4-3 match.
Mike Thorn recorded the Gophers’ seventh win of the day with a 4-3 win
over Northwestern’s Keith Sulzer in the fifth place bout at 141 pounds.
Safratowich’s win over Colton Salazar in the third place match at 157
pounds was Minnesota’s final win of the day and marked his second win
over the Purdue 157-pounder of the tournament.
In spite of the fifth place finish, the tournament served as valuable
postseason experience to the seven Gophers who made their postseason
debuts this weekend.
“It shows that if you believe you can win and you want to win; if you
want it more than the other guy you can go out there and it can be
done,” Safratowich said. “Guys struggle sometimes thinking they have to
win a certain match, but if you just go out there and relax, good
things are going to happen.”
Minnesota returns to the Twin Cities where it will await the NCAA
Tournament at-large bid announcements this week. The national
tournament will unfold Mar. 19-21 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis,
Mo. for the second straight year.
